Newspaper balloting method



June 9, 1964 w. D. SMITH 3,135,567

NEWSPAPER BALLOTING METHOD Filed Jan. l1, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 THEDAILY NEWS June 9, 1964 w. D. SMITH 3,136,567

AnmwsPAPER BALLOTING METHOD Filed Jan. ll, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 THEPULSE LIHE PEOPLE IN VEN TOR Willard .Smm

United States Patent O 3,136,567 NEWSPAPER BALLo'rlNG METHOD Willard D.smith, Box 576, Maitland, Fla. Filed rdn. 1i, 196s, ser. No. 250,941 2claims. (Cl. 282-25) This invention relates to a system and/or method ofcontrolled balloting by postal cards and more particularly to anewspaper balloting method of quickly and accurately obtaining publicopinion polls from a printed page or a portion thereof.

An object of this invention is to provide a method of facilitating thetaking of public opinion polls by printing coded data in a periodical orother printed medium and having means to directly transfer data to asuitable medium, preferably a standard postal card, for subsequentanalysis and classification.

The taking of public opinion polls by printed publications is, atpresent, a cumbersome and relatively costly and unreliable process.Ballots may be printed on a page of a periodical to be cut out, markedand mailed. Ordinarily this process reqiures considerable handling ofthe papers. Thereafter it is necessary for a number of clerks,secretaries or others to handle and rehandle the paper to read theballots and record the votes manually, in some manner, for analysis andtotalizing. This often results in tearing and loss of ballots and atbest is time consuming and laborious. The results can not be knownquickly even when a large number of persons are engaged in such atallying operation. By following my method as herein shown anddescribed, the results of a ballot or poll can be known within minutesof receiving the cards, usually by mail. The voter may use anyrelatively blunt implement, such as a lead pencil or a ball point pen totrace or ll in an outline printed on a page of a periodical or the liketo a card, such as a standard postal card, placed back of the printedoutline to receive an impression of the tracing by transfer through inkor the like placed on the next or backing page of the locus of printedoutline. Cards with suc'n accurate markings thereon may be mailed to ordeposited at a central bureau where they may be analyzed and tabulatedby automatic photoelectrically responsive means.

It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide amethod of taking a public opinion poll which includes direct transfer ofa vote from a printed page of a newspaper or other printed sheet to apostal card by tracing or filling in an outline printed on the page,thereby transferring an indication of the outline or a portion of thearea therein to an accurately predetermined position on the card throughthe medium of suitable ink or other transfer material on the back of thepage.

Still another object of this invention is the provision of a method inconnection with a periodical or other publication for poll taking whichincludes delineating on the lower left corner of the obverse side of afolded sheet adjacent the gutter and lower margin thereof a couponhaving indicia thereon arranged in rows normal to the gutter or fold andproviding on the reverse side of said sheet, in exact back to backregister, an area having transfer material in exact register with theindicia on the coupon, placing a postal card face down adjacent thetransfer material with its normally upper margin in the gutter; foldingportions of the coupon area rearwardly about the postal card at theright and the lower edge; marking suitable indica to transfer codedinformation to the postal card and mailing the card to an assembly andanalyzing station for analysis and tallying on a machine havingphotosensitive sensing means conditioned for the indicia on the coupon.

Still another object of the invention is the provision 3,136,567Patented June `9, 1964 ice of a method for poll taking in connectionwith a folded page of a newspaper or a bound-periodical such as amagazine, and which includes; delineating on the outer side of thefolded page or the outer side of two facing pages of a bound periodical,a plurality of small discrete outlined areas thereon within an areadelineated by a standard government issued postal card adjacent to thefolded edge of the page; providing transfer material on the reverse sideof the page which registers with the discrete small outlined areas;placing the postal card with one edge against the bottom of the fold orgutter between the two facing pages with its blank face toward thetransfer material and a transverse edge in line with the end of the pageor a marking on one of the two facing pages of the folded sheet orpublication; folding either the page on which the small outlines andtransfer material are provided or both facing pages about the other edgeof the postal card parallel to the gutter to lock the card therebetween;and pressing within selected ones of the discrete outlined areas totransfer material to the postal card at registering areas thereon, andmailing the card to a station for automatically tallying on a machinehaving conventional scanning devices for sensing the location andoccurrence of the transfer material on the postal card.

These and `other objects will become apparent from a consideration ofthe following specification taken with the accompanying drawings forminga part thereof.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a newspaper or other periodical havingthe front page exposed and showing the application of this invention inthe left lower corner, together with a corresponding portion of pages 2and 3;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view as in FIG. l, with the rst sheet thrownback to expose pages 2 and 3 and showing features of this invention nearthe lower right corner of page 2, and the lower left corner of page 3;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan View of the lower left corner of page 1showing a postal card positioned in the gutter fold;

FIG. 4 is a View in perspective of the lower left corner of page 1 withthe folds formed about the postal card;

FIG. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a section on the line 6 6 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary section on the line 7-7 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of the feed portion of ascanning and analyzing device, showing feeding a marked card thereinto.

Referring now to FIG. 1, I show a representation of a newspaper or otherpublication 10 having page 1 thereof exposed. The lower left corner ofthis page may include the present invention in the form of a template orjig coupon 12 adapted to be cut out on the lines 14 and 16, as willlater appear. In a predetermined part of this template or coupon,preferably at the left side thereof and adjacent the fold or gutter line11, I lay out a rectangular area 18 the size of a standard postal card.In this rectangular area 18 I print one or more rows of indicia, threebeing shown in FIG. 1, with the rows normal to the fold or gutter of theperiodical. The indicia in each row are labeled respectively yes, dontknown and no in the circles delineating row I in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4. Thecircles being respectively numbered 20, Z2 and 24. Rows II and IIIcontain similar circles 20', 22', 24', 20, 22 and 24" respectively. Inthe spaces about the rows I, II, and III, I print the questions, ordigests thereof, on which a poll is to be taken. In the space 13adjacent the portion 18, I may print instructions for balloting.

I prefer to call my method The Pulse of the People as indicated at 26 onFIG. 3. Other titles may be apo e9 propriate, and the balloting methodmay serve other purposes.

O11 page 2 of the paper 10', as shown in FIG. 2, I print the back 34 ofthe template or coupon l2. This portion 34 includes a rectangular area36 corresponding to the rectangular area 18, and properly eollocatedtherewith. In this area 36, in exact register with the area 18containing rows I, II and III of indicia on page l, I print blackstripes or kbars 46, 4S and 5t). While a heavy application of newsprintink will usually serve my purpose I have found and therefore prefer touse a special carbon black transfer ink which is particularly suited'forthis purpose and is quick drying and somewhat glossy.

It being assumed that a public opinion poll is desired on some questionor propositions; suitable information, instructions and regulations forvoting are promulgated and printed in the space surrounding the area 18on page l of the paper,` in the template coupon 12. The voting indiciaZtl, 22, 244, 267, 22', 24 and 20", 22 and 24 are printed in rows I, Iland III on the rectangular area or space 18. The indicia 20, 22 etc., asabove described Vare, in this example preferably circles. They may,however, be in any other desirable form, such as rectangles, triangles,stars or mixture of symbols. On page 2, directly in register with theindicia or symbols 2t), 22, etc., stripes or bars 46, Sand St) areprinted as explained above. The black stripes 46, 43 and 50 are printedin register with the rows I, II and III respectively of indicia on pagel in the rectangular area 18.

The subscriber or other person desiring to vote in the projected pollwill remove the coupon. After deciding Vwhich choice he shall record hewill place a common postal card 52 face down adjacent the gutter 11 toregister with the area 34, with the normally upper margin in the guter11. The normally right hand edge of the card will be at the lower marginof the page, in exact register with the lower edge 19 of the coupon 12'.By placing the upper edge of the card in the gutter 11, the lines I, IIand III being properly oriented normal to gutter 11, any symbolstransferred to the card will be in proper register for analysis by adevice conditioned for the indicia in said rows. After properly placingthe postal card 52, the portion I3 of the coupon and a correspondingportion of the sheet, are folded rearwardly. The rigidity of the cardrelative to the paper of the publication makes it relatively easy toproperly fold the paper about the card and accurately position samerelative the coupon area 18. The lower edges or margins of the samepages pages are folded rearwardly and the card 52 is properlypositioned. The voters choice is now made of record by tracing lorotherwise transferring coded indicia to the postal card 52 by the use ofa blunt pointed implement, such as a pencil or a ball pen. The card 52may be preaddressed or the voter may address it. He may sign it or notas required or suggested. After completing the operation, the card 52 ismailedv to a central station or bureau, where many such cards areassembled, and then analyzed on a device having photosensitive sensingmeans conditioned for the indicia and data on the delineated area 18 ofthe coupon'lZ.

Upon receipt of such cards, they may be successively faced properly andplaced at the feed end 54 of a suitable tabulation mechanism S6, whichmechanism is preferably provided with a photoelectric or other scanningmechanism responsive to the smudge marks on the cards. The tabulatedresults will thus be uniformly accurate and had within minutes ofreceipt of a batch of cards.

i In FIG. 2, the diagram 28 represents the position of a card 52 byshowing the stamp 6i) and the description of the card 62, both in dottedlines to indicate that a properly positioned card is face down. Thelower edge of Vthe printed page adjacent the margin is represented at2S.

This may be the line between the page margin and the printed portion ofthe page.

It should be apparent, therefore, that I have developed a rapid andaccurate method of obtaining a public opinion poll. Furthermore, itismuch cheaper to accomplish than to take 'a poll by the employment of asmall army of enumerators, and/or the employement of a host of personsto anlyze and tabulate the results of an ordinary newspaper poll whereinvoters, clip, mark and directly mail coupons.

This application is a continuation-impart of my copending application,Serial No. 774,005, filed November 14, 1958, now abandoned.

I claim:

l. A method for taking a public opinion poll comprising the steps ofprinting a ballot on a page of a publication, coating the page on thereverse side with discrete areas of a transfer material to thereby forma coupon, removing the coupon area from the publication includingcorresponding parts containing the gutter, placing a post card adjacentsaidy transfer material and in a predetermined position relative to theprinted ballot, mark- Ving the ballot by pressing on selected andpredetermined areas thereof whereby to transfer material topredetermined areas of the card, mailing the card to an assembly center,orienting all cards so received whereby all the transferred markings arein predetermined positions, feeding the oriented cards to a countingmachine, and counting the markings in each area.

2. A method for taking a public opinion polly comprising the steps ofprinting a ballot on a page of a publication adjacent the gutter,coating the page on the reverse side with discrete areas of a transfermaterial to thereby form a coupon, removing the coupon area from thepublication including corresponding parts containing the gutter, placinga post card against the gutter and adjacent said transfer material in apredetermined position relative to the printed ballot, marking theballot by pressing on selected and predetermined areas thereof wherebyto transfer material to predetermined areas of the card, mailing thecard to an assembly center, orienting all cards so received whereby allthe transferred markings are in predeterminedV positions, feeding theoriented cards to a counting machine, and counting the transferredmarkings.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS 227,015Great Britain Ian. 8, 1925

1. A METHOD FOR TAKING A PUBLIC OPINION POLL COMPRISING THE STEPS OFPRINTING A BALLOT ON A PAGE OF A PUBLICATION, COATING THE PAGE ON THEREVERSE SIDE WITH DISCRETE AREAS OF A TRANSFER MATERIAL TO THEREBY FORMA COUPON, REMOVING THE COUPON AREA FROM THE PUBLICATION INCLUDINGCORRESPONDING PARTS CONTAINING THE GUTTER, PLACING A POST CARD ADJACENTSAID TRANSFER MATERIAL AND IN A PREDETERMINED POSITION RELATIVE TO THEPRINTED BALLOT, MARKING THE BALLOT BY PRESSING ON SELECTED ANDPREDETERMINED AREAS THEREOF WHEREBY TO TRANSFER MATERIAL TOPREDETERMINED AREAS OF THE CARD, MAILING THE CARD TO AN ASSEMBLY CENTER,ORIENTING ALL CARDS SO RECEIVED WHEREBY ALL THE TRANSFERRED MARKINGS AREIN PREDETERMINE POSITIONS, FEEDING THE ORIENTED CARDS TO A COUNTINGMACHINE, AND COUNTING THE MARKINGS IN EACH AREA.